Recently the Group Committee agreed to donated £250 to an appeal in aid of sending a local nine year old girl on the trip of a lifetime. Tegan Rendell although only nine, has faced more illness & struggles in the last couple of years than most of us get in a lifetime.
Tegan was diagnosed with type one diabetes just after her eighth birthday in April 2012, she was also found to have coeliac disease, an autoimmune condition that makes the body mistakenly attack itself and has left her with almost no lining in her intestines. She also suffers regular epileptic fits, up to 20 a day, and the day after her ninth birthday last year, she was diagnosed with eosinophilic oesophagitis, an inflammatory condition of the wind pipe and finally, last month (December 2013) she was found to have a brain tumour.
Although the tumour is benign, her medical specialists can’t give Tegan, or mum Clare, a definitive prognosis. It is too deep in her brain for them to be able to operate successfully.
Despite all the problems, Tegan is a very active participant in the Gloucester Cheer & Dance Academy, where she is a keen member of the cheer leading youth team “Rubies”
Clare, said “She is amazing though. Of course it’s affected her – she’s gone from a confident young lady to an anxious little girl – but she is very determined. Her friends, everyone at the school and the Gloucester Cheer and Dance Academy, where she did her cheer leading, have just been amazing. It’s really been quite overwhelming.”
Now, friends, family and supporters are getting together to send the cheer leading fanatic to Florida in April for the sport’s world finals. A trip to Disney World is also planned, but £5,000 is needed to make it happen.
Sarah Watkins, a friend who set up a Facebook site “Tegans Dream”, says in its description: “Cheer leading is something Tegan has been doing for a few years and she lives for it. It is the biggest competition in the world and we know it would mean everything to her if she could go.”
Campbell, Graham and Mike presented a cheque to Tegan at Checkers Gym were she practices her cheer leading, and found that despite all her issues she was a bright, bubbly nine year old, although as her mum said, unfortunately that’s not always the case.
We all agreed that, and I think you will too, that Tegan has suffered so much for one so young and that she deserves the opportunity to go on the holiday of her dreams.
If you would like to donate personally to this most worthy young ladies appeal and make her dreams come true, then go to Go Fund Me. If you do not have a computer, cheques can be sent to “Tegans Dream”, 21 Minstrel Way Churchdown, Gloucester, GL3 1NS, made payable to GCA,